The eighth suspect in the attempted murder of Alejo Vidal-Quadras, still on the run, must complete the puzzle of the Iranian plot. Since January, Spanish police have been searching for a citizen with dual nationality, Moroccan and Spanish, who allegedly hired the perpetrator of the shooting, who was arrested last June in the Netherlands. The fugitive is believed to be at the top of the organization of the attack, in contact with those who ordered it.
The reconstruction of the preparation of the attack carried out by the General Information Commission has led to the conclusion that a third man had been watching Vidal-Quadras before the Franco-Tunisian Ahmez Ayari shot Vidal-Quadras a few metres from his home on 9 November 2023. This was the Spanish-Moroccan fugitive who, 24 hours before Ayari pulled the trigger, with everything ready for the crime, left Madrid.
The relevance of this eighth suspect lies, however, in his role in the plot. Investigators believe that he is the last step they must take before reaching Iran. A former resident of the Costa del Sol, with numerous criminal records, the fugitive is said to have hired Ahyari to pull the trigger. According to El Confidencialby Sami Bekal Bounouare, alias ‘Pacho’.
The eighth piece of the puzzle would also have been responsible for obtaining support infrastructure for Ayari, who was accompanied in the attack and escape by a Granadan, a Shiite convert, who accompanied him in the escape from the scene and who would have participated in the previous surveillance of Vidal-Quadras. Together with the fugitive and the gunman, the Spanish-Moroccan is the third man who stalked the politician. When everything was ready, he left Madrid and Spain. The Spanish police are looking for ‘Pacho’ in several countries while the judge maintains the secret of the actions.
The reverse route that police investigators have taken since last November has uncovered a much wider web than the initial investigations had suggested. Seven people have now been arrested in Spain, France and the Netherlands. All of these arrests point in one direction, the same one that Vidal-Quadras wrote in capital letters on the screen of his mobile phone and showed to a police officer in the ambulance that took him to hospital: “the Iranian regime.”
The arrest of the man who shot Vidal-Quadras confirmed who was behind the attack. Ayari was arrested while carrying out another attack in Haarlem, just outside Amsterdam. In this case, his target was Siamak Tahmasbi, an Iranian opposition figure with a strong following on social media.
Tahmasbi, whose house had been attacked a month earlier, reacted quickly and the police managed to arrest two armed men, a 27-year-old Colombian and a 38-year-old French-Tunisian. The latter was Ahmez Ayari, who had been wanted by the National Court after the police identified him as the person who shot Vidal-Quadras.
First arrests
In the same month of the attack, in November 2023, the police carried out the first phase of the police operation. Naraya Gómez, a young Spanish Shiite convert living in Granada, was arrested. His girlfriend was arrested along with him and released on bail. The first clues pointing to Pacho were on Naraya’s mobile phone. A few days after the attack, Naraya had written to the Spanish-Moroccan: “Mission complete.”
In this first phase, a young Spaniard, resident in Malaga, who had participated in the purchase of the motorcycle used in the attack, was also arrested and was also released after giving a statement at the National Court.
In January, Colombian police arrested a Venezuelan who was trying to enter the country and who is being held accountable by Spanish authorities for having collaborated in the attack.
In April, Dutch police arrested a woman in the country for her alleged involvement in the financing and preparation of the attack against Alejo Vidal-Quadras. A Dutch national, she was arrested on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant issued by Spain, pending its fulfilment.
This woman has emerged as a key piece in the plot against Vidal-Quadras. She was related to Ayari and his brother, who is now the seventh and last person arrested. The woman, Chahinez K., even travelled to Lanjarón with Pacho to meet with Naraya and the perpetrator, Ayari.
Like Ayari, his brother lived in France. The arrest was the result of progress in the investigation by the Spanish police, which led to an arrest warrant issued by the Central Court of Instruction No. 1 of the National Court, which was executed by the authorities of the neighbouring country.
The Iranian regime has been planning and carrying out attacks on European soil since 2019 against those it considers enemies, especially Jewish individuals and interests, as reported by the media consortium European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), to which Infolibre belongs. The attacks have involved the participation of dangerous criminals in different parts of Europe. The aforementioned network is implicated in the burning of four Israeli-owned companies in France. Germany discovered that Jewish citizens were spied on in Berlin and Munich.
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